There was a popular saying in 16th-century Germany: If you want to make trouble for yourself, take a wife, hit a cleric, or buy a watch. Phenomenally complicated luxury items, German watches of this...

At a conceptual level, a watch is very simple: A movement moves the hands to indicate the time on a dial. The status quo for more than 500 years, this system seems so natural that it is difficult to...

When quartz technology proved its superior accu­racy in the late 1960s, the Swiss were forced to turn their attention to the more luxurious aspects of mechanical timepieces, like design, decoration,...

The technique behind the snakelike coils of Bulgari’s Serpenti watches may be older than the company itself. The tubogas technique—which involves interlinking long strips of metal around a removable...